Parlando: The COC Blog

11/13/2014

Centre Stage

On November 25, 2014, the Canadian Opera Company presents its annual fundraising gala event, Centre Stage: an evening dedicated to the discovery and celebration of young opera talent with an exhilarating competitive showcase of singers. Seven vocal finalists, chosen following preliminary auditions in Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver and New York City for the COC Ensemble Studio – Canada’s premier training program for young opera professionals – will be competing for cash prizes ranging from $1500 to $5000.

Hosting the highly anticipated evening is Canadian Ben Heppner. A graduate of the Ensemble Studio, Heppner is recognized internationally as one of the finest dramatic tenors in the world and one of this country’s distinguished operatic talents. Also anticipated is a surprise musical guest, who will be revealed only at the event itself!

Each singer will perform two arias before the audience and a panel of judges, with accompaniment supplied by the internationally acclaimed COC Orchestra led by COC Music Director Johannes Debus. First, second and third prizes, of $5,000, $3,000 and $1,500, are awarded, in addition to an Audience Choice Award, selected by audience vote, of $1,500. Select finalists are also invited to join the COC’s 2015/2016 Ensemble Studio, to be announced at a later date.

“Through Centre Stage, the Canadian Opera Company is able to offer a special preview of the future of opera in Canada. The young artists we invite to participate in Centre Stage are some of the best and most promising operatic voices from across the country,” says COC General Director Alexander Neef. “We see exceptional talent over the course of our annual auditions for the Ensemble Studio and wanted to find a way to share these young artists with a wider audience, which is why we created a public competition component to the process a few years ago. Now, Centre Stage is one of the most anticipated events in the COC season.”

The vocal competition was first launched in 2011 in order to showcase the opera talent the COC had scouted from across the country and to create a public platform for celebrating the future of opera in Canada. In 2013 the competition finalists were showcased as never before when they performed with an orchestra led by a world-renowned conductor from the mainstage of the COC’s opera house.

“It’s the excitement of hearing up-and-coming voices vying for prize money and glory that makes competitions irresistible – to me, at least!” said Joseph So, an opera journalist, in his review of the 2012 competition for La Scena Musicale. “Aspiring singers [get] to strut their stuff... Some of them have that extra, intangible something called star power, musicality, charisma, whatever. It’s that elusive quality that makes a singer an artist, and someone with the promise of a significant career. Competitions such as this one are designed to find that singer.”

Centre Stage takes place on November 25, 2014 at 6:30 p.m. in R. Fraser Elliott Hall at the Four Seasons Centre (145 Queen St. W.). Centre Stage Competition tickets are $100 and include a pre-competition cocktail celebration. Specially priced $35 tickets are also available for patrons between the ages of 16 and 29 through Opera Under 30 sponsored by TD Bank Group. Centre Stage Gala tickets, encompassing the competitive vocal showcase and an exclusive black-tie dinner, are $1,500, with a limited number available for purchase.

For more information and to purchase tickets, visit www.COCCentreStage.ca, call COC Ticket Services at 416-363-8231 or visit the Four Seasons Centre Box Office (145 Queen St. W.).

ON REMEMBRANCE DAY…

This Remembrance Day, we take a moment to salute those who were involved in the war effort during the Second World War and joined the fledgling Canadian Opera Company as singers in its nascent years.

Here are just a few of those to whom we pay tribute:

Glenn Gardiner as John Sorel, Nellie Smith as Mother, and Theresa Gray as Magda Sorel in The Consul. Photo credit: Alex Gray, 1954

Prior to becoming one of the original members of the Canadian Opera Company, Glenn Gardiner was a pilot who joined the RCAF in 1940, flying 23 missions until May 6, 1942, when his plane was shot down over Belgium. He was captured and transported to Stalag Luft III, site of the now-famous Great Escape. Gardiner acted as a lookout for the diggers, but was not one of the 79 who attempted escape because he suffered from claustrophobia. Gardiner spent exactly three years as a POW.

After the war, Gardiner returned to Toronto to study at the Toronto Conservatory of Music (later the Royal Conservatory), after which he met teacher Ernesto Vinci and the COC’s first General Director Herman Gieger-Torel who plunged him into the world of opera. For the COC, Gardiner sang in all the productions of the company’s first two years Rigoletto, Don Giovanni and La Bohème (1950), and Le nozze di Figaro, Madama Butterfly and Faust (1951). He also sang the role of John Sorel in Gian-Carlo Menotti’s The Consul in 1953 and 1954 among many other roles.

During the war, bass-baritoneAndrew MacMillan performed for the troops as a member of the Canadian Army Show. While he had already appeared extensively in operettas and musicals in Montreal during the 1930s, it wasn’t until the war was over that he began studying in earnest at the Royal Conservatory under Ernesto Vinci. In 1949 MacMillan became Herman Geiger-Torel’s teaching assistant, and in 1950 joined the company as both a singer and assistant stage director. Over the years, MacMillan was a valuable member of the company’s artistic roster singing lead roles in La Bohème, The Consul, Die Fledermaus, The Magic Flute, and The Marriage of Figaro. In addition, he directed Madama Butterfly in 1962, La Bohème in 1963 and 1965, and Die Fledermaus in 1964.

TenorJames (Jimmie) Shields was already a well-known performer on radio and touring shows throughout the 1930s in Canada and the US, singing with the big bands of Morton Gould and Eddie Duchin, as well as appearing on the immensely popular radio shows hosted by Jack Benny, Fred Allen, and Fibber McGee and Molly. He also starred on his own weekly NBC program called Enna Jettick Melodies.

From 1942-1946, he appeared as The Singing Sergeant-Major in the same Canadian Army Show as Andrew MacMillan. After the war, in addition to being a leading performer on CBC Opera, and appearing on stage at Massey Hall with the TSO and various other orchestras, he also sang for the COC. He was Rodolfo in La Bohème (1951 and 1954) and Pinkerton in Madama Butterfly (1951, 1953 and 1956).

The ladies of the COC also participated in the war effort. Mezzo-sopranoJoan Hall (Madama Butterfly, The Magic Flute, Rigoletto) remembers that she and others like sopranos Mary Morrison (Faust, The Magic Flute, The Bartered Bride, Così fan tutte, The Marriage of Figaro), Jean Edwards (The Magic Flute, The Marriage of Figaro) and June Kowalchuk (Rigoletto, Madama Butterfly), spent some of their pre-COC years “wearing long johns under our long dresses in the 40 below weather and singing in front of two or three thousand troops!!! In Manitoba!!! We didn’t know much about opera, but our stage experience was awesome!”

We remember them all with pride and gratitude. Thank you to the Joan Baillie Archives of the COC for the photographs and memories.

Free Concert Series Highlights for November

This November, the Free Concert Series in the Richard Bradshaw Amphitheatre features an eclectic mix of concerts. From programs that showcase vocal and chamber music gems, to unique genre-bending world music and jazz, you will find concerts to move, inspire and entertain you. Here are a few that you won't want to miss!

Jewish-Canadian trumpeter and composer David Buchbinder teams up with Cuban piano master Hilario Durán and a crew of Canada’s top jazz and world musicians to form Odessa/Havana. In a unique cross-cultural collaboration, the group explores the commonalities of music from the Iberian peninsula and their shared Arabic, Roma, Sephardic and North African roots.

In the second of six concerts in our sub-series, A Century of Change: Remembering the World Wars and the Fall of the Berlin Wall, French-Canadian pianist Maxim Bernard commemorates the 100th anniversary of the start of the First World War with a touching program of works written during the war. Maxim reflects on the role of the artist during one of the most pivotal periods in Western history through works by Rachmaninov, Medtner, Hindemith, Scriabin, Fauré and Ravel.

Award-winning singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and producer Dominic Mancuso leads a powerhouse quintet of Canada’s foremost world musicians in a compelling sonic exploration of his ancestry. With his passionate and soulful singing style, infectious on-stage energy and enchanting storytelling, Dominic embraces the repertoire of his southern Italian forefathers and infuses it with the rich multicultural flavours of his native Toronto. In this special presentation, he performs highlights from his Juno Award-winning album, Comfortably Mine, as well as the group’s recent studio offering, Sub Urban Gypsy.

Two of Canada’s leading chamber musicians, flautist Susan Hoeppner and percussionist Beverley Johnston, unite for an eclectic hour of music for flute inspired by landscapes ranging from Canada’s Arctic to the island of Bali. The program includes works by Gareth Farr (Kembang Suling), Lou Harrison (Ariadne), Arvo Pärt (Spiegel im Spiegel), Dean Burry (Tempest in a Teacup) and Christos Hatzis (Arctic Dreams).

Don't miss the opportunity to hear the stars of tomorrow when artists of The Glenn Gould School present a rich and varied program of music for chamber ensemble and voice. The concert features a variety of vocal chamber gems, including Chausson’s entrancing Chanson perpétuelle for soprano and piano quintet. Hear Jessye Norman's take on the piece in the recording below.

Is there a concert you're looking forward to this month? Share it with us in the comments or on our Facebook page!